Mono-Black Mastery

It’s Tuesday O’Clock! Time for a Deck Tech

Hello and welcome to Only on Tuesdays! This week we are heading to Standard to check out a very simple, yet very effective deck. Mono-Black Mastery. If you would like to see this deck in action be sure to check out my stream today at 6 PM MST.

This is a Mono-Black Control deck with a slight twist. Just like the lists at the Dominaria pro-tour, we intend to control the board and keep it clear until we can land our finisher and close out the game. At the pro-tour, the Mono-Black lists ran as much removal as they could get their hands on, combined with powerful finishers such as Dread Shade and Walking Ballista. Mono-Black Control had a decent showing there but was ultimately beaten out by the other decks of the meta.

I didn’t build this deck with Mono-Black Control in mind, however. When I first set out to build this deck, the first card I put in the 75 was Lich’s Mastery. Lich’s Mastery is a powerful card that can make it impossible for your opponent to win the second this hits the field. Very few things in the current Standard format can deal with this card, and the value it provides is unreal. As I started to add cards to the 75, I incidentally discovered this powerful Mono-Black Control shell that the pro players had also discovered. I modeled a list after theirs with a special twist of lifegain and ended up with Mono-Black Mastery.

Overall I have made a few adjustments to their deck to create something that I feel is powerful and can still compete in the current metagame. One of the first steps I took with the deck was to include as many incidental life-gain effects as possible. Most of these effects come in the form of removal, which is perfect, as this will significantly help out in the RB aggro matchup that so many decks struggle with, in the current metagame. Another card that has proven to be better than expected is Filigree Familiar. This metallic fox is just a bundle of value that fills in everything this deck wants. Lifegain, cards, creature, and cuteness.

These changes were made to, of course, support Lich’s Mastery, however, they aren’t even necessary to the overall gameplan of the deck. Lich’s Mastery is a card that demands to be answered by itself, and if your opponent can’t, it becomes nearly impossible for them to win the game. Casting this while your below 5 or more life feels like you just gained 20 life, and then each card you cast will replace itself and more, leading to explosive comebacks where you get to bury your opponent in card advantage.

Another slight change I made to the Channel Fireball version of the list was to add Field of Ruin. This powerful card gives us a main deck answer to Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin, a card that would give us significant trouble otherwise. And this comes at a very small impact to the manabase because of its ability to search out lands. With Cabal Stronghold, you want as many basic swamps as possible, and while Field of Ruin technically doesn’t count as a basic swamp immediately, being able to destroy those valuable lands and trigger Revolt for Fatal Push makes it well worth the slot.

Finally, one of the last cards I added in is largely because I think it is an extremely fun card. That card is of course, Torment of Hailfire, however, I don’t add the card in blindly for no reason. Torment of Hailfire functions as a way to beat up on control and midrange matchups which our removal spells may end up struggling against. With Cabal Stronghold, generating upwards of 9 mana is certainly possible, and can help us to clear the board in the face of defeat.

One of the greatest appeals to this deck I feel lies in its cost. As I am writing this, my version of Mono-Black Mastery costs $99.19. (31.15 Tix). This is a budget competitive deck, that can be upgraded or downgraded as you see fit. Can’t afford $100? Try $40 (5 Tix) instead after cutting Vraska’s Contempt, Fatal Push, and Torment of Hailfire. Want to invest more in the deck? Try out Walking Ballista, Liliana, Death’s Majesty, and Sorcerous Spyglass. This deck has many different avenues that can all be tuned to best serve you. If you would like to see this deck in action be sure to check out my stream today at 6 PM MST. Thank you all for reading, I hope you have a great week and an amazing Tuesday!